WCC news: WCC leaves COP17 in Ulaanbaatar with the same land question

For 11 days in Ulaanbaatar, the World Council of Churches (WCC) made one argument in five different events: degraded land will not be restored without the communities who already hold it. It closed on 25 August, with churches in front of investors, then farmers. Group picture with participants of the WCC side event on Agroecology and Farmer-managed natural regeneration. Photo: Mongolian Presss Agency 4 September 2026 The UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the treaty to address land degradation and drought, met in Mongolia from 17 to 28 August for its 17th Conference of the Parties (COP). On 22 August the WCC held an official side event on faith communities as partners in land restoration. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, presented the Living Planet Monitor, the WCC's land restoration evidence base, which he edits. The argument for restoration, he said, is only as strong as the data behind it. The morning of 25 August began in the Business for Land Pavilion. Faith organizations hold roughly 8 percent of the world's habitable land, according to FaithInvest, a figure that makes faith communities a formidable force in land restoration. Faith communities and religious groups invest according to their values, and much of the land held by faith-based organizations needs restoration. Investors, meanwhile, are looking for credible places to put restoration money. So far, neither side has had much of a route to the other. Suna set out what churches can bring: faith impact investment. Churches, in most cases, formulate their investment policy on theological and ethical principles. They lead by example, as they screen out fossil fuels, weapons, exploitation, and corruption. They invest in renewable energy, sustainable farming, land restoration, and water. Then they measure what changed for communities and ecosystems, not only for the balance sheet. The conditions were clear. No faith washing, which means using a church's good name to make a business position look ethical without the church having shaped it. Instead, free, prior and informed consultation. The WCC works with FaithInvest with one hand, Suna said, and supports court cases related to fossil fuel companies, prioritizing protecting children, with the other. The door is open, and the polluter still pays. Later that morning, the WCC and World Vision International held a second session on agro-ecology, farming that works with ecological processes, and farmer-managed natural regeneration. Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, WCC president from North America, gave the keynote from Matthew 5:6. "It is not enough for us to invite and profess righteousness; we must make actual investments through our actions . . . Land restoration is based on a spiritual principle of righteousness and love for land as an extension of loving the Creator, ourselves, and all of Creation." Prof. Amos Pui Kuen Tai of The Chinese University of Hong Kong gave the second keynote, on farmer managed natural regeneration and agro-ecology. The panel that followed was built on lived experience: Irene Ojuok, who leads World Vision's farmer-managed natural regeneration scale-up across Africa, Mongolian practitioners from Green Asia Network and World Vision, scientists from VRM Biologic, and students from Hong Kong and Sweden. The faith communities have issued two statements including a Talanoa Dialogue message, addressing land degradation and hope for land restoration, which acknowledges the 1.3 billion US dollars mobilized at COP17 as a meaningful step, but it is a drop in the ocean, compared with the estimated 355 billion US dollars per year needed for land restoration and drought resilience through 2030. Two more conferences ahead. The UN biodiversity conference will meet in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October, and the UN climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November. Land, biodiversity, and climate are one crisis in three conventions, and the WCC will carry the same case to both. It belongs to the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–34), which asks churches for ecological metanoia: a change of heart and mind, repentance included, deep enough to change what they do with what they own. Understand a bit more Farmer-managed natural regeneration: Beneath many degraded fields lie living stumps and root systems, sometimes called an underground forest. Protected and pruned rather than cleared or burned, they regrow alongside the crops without nurseries, seedlings, or irrigation. The land restoration practice was developed in Niger in the 1980s and has since spread across the Sahel. WCC tells COP17 that land restoration needs faith partners (News Release, 26 August 2026) Care for creation and climate justice Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action FaithInvest, Why work with faiths See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland